Who should attend?

This is an ‘introductory’ course to ACT and people who attend this course normally fall into one of two categories:

1. Professionals who see patients in 1:1 treatment settings and have a significant degree of clinical skill.

2. 'Whole teams' (either in inpatient or community settings) seeking to add to their common approach.
 

What the course covers:​

• The differences between ACT and traditional cognitive behavioral therapy. Noticing, accepting and embracing thoughts and feelings, including unwanted ones, and taking action on them.

• Getting in touch with "self-as-context" - the part of you that observes and experiences but is different from the part of you that has feelings, sensations, and memories.

• Clarifying personal values and acting in accordance with them, thereby enhancing the quality of one's life.

• The idea that the normal human state is one of distress, rather than distress being pathological.
• Experiential avoidance, cognitive entanglement, and psychological rigidity, all of which may prevent one from acting in line with one's real values.
• The FEAR acronym as a summary of what causes us problems:
  Fusion with your thoughts
  Evaluation of experience
  Avoidance of your experience
  Reason-giving for your behavior
• And the ACT acronym that summarizes a more adaptive way of behaving:
  Accept your reactions and be 'present'
  Choose a valued direction
  Take action
• Cognitive defusion: Learning how to overcome the natural tendency to regard our thoughts, images, emotions, and memories as sacred.
• Acceptance: Accepting our thoughts and allowing them to come and go without fighting them.
• Awareness of the here and now, experienced with openness, interest, and receptiveness.
• Observing the self: Accessing a transcendent sense of self, the ever-present part of you that observes and experiences.
• Values: Finding out what is most important to you and having clarity on it.
• Committed action: Acting responsibly in line with your values.

Learning Outcomes:

At the end of this course, the learner will be able to:

• Explain the underpinning of the ACT approach and what is meant by the terminology “first wave”, “second wave” and 'third wave' therapeutic approaches.

• Describe the key concepts of the “Hexaflex” and the “Triflex” in the ACT approach.
• Identify the important components of a patient’s situation that will enable them to construct a case formulation.
• Plan how to construct a first treatment session integrating the use of mindfulness practice.
• Prepare a standard treatment session using the key concepts of Acceptance & Defusion.
• Demonstrate how to help the patient identify their personal values as part of the ACT approach.
• Describe techniques that can be used to help the patient engage in committed action to live by their personal values.
• Demonstrate how to help patients understand the concept of “self-as-context” in the ACT approach.

Accreditation

This course is APT-professional accredited. To be APT-professional accredited, means it receives an average rating of over 90% from the mental health professionals who attend it, on each of the two key scales of relevance and presentation-quality. We view this as a very high and relevant level of accreditation. 

CE Credits from the APA

*The Association for Psychological Therapies (APT) is approved by the American Psychological Association (APA) to sponsor continuing education for Psychologists. The Association for Psychological Therapies (APT) maintains responsibility for this program and its content.

Upon completion of this course you can apply for CE certification for an additional cost of $20 USD (for training purchased after 05/26/2023). 

Requirements for completion: To be awarded CE credits for this course 100% attendance is required for live training. For the 'online anytime' (self-paced) version, you are required to complete the course in full and complete a multiple choice exam whereby a pass marks of 85% is required (failure on the third attempt would result in having to go back through the content again). A feedback survey is also required to be completed.

Note: there may be other professional licensing boards that accept CE credits earned from APA-approved sponsors. Because CE regulations vary by state and profession, we recommend that participants check with their state licensing board to inquire whether credits will be accepted for renewal of licensure. We do not have any authority over whether credits earned will be accepted, as this authority rests with the state licensing boards.
 

Bookings:

To access the course straightaway, click ‘add to cart’ to purchase by card or PayPal. (If you are ordering the course for somebody else, or a group, create an account and select ‘Bulk Purchase’ once you have proceeded to cart.)

If you would like to be invoiced please click here (once the invoice has been paid or upon receipt of an official Purchase Order, we can then grant access to the course).